News and views on the UK's Green Parties

The Green Party has responded to the Government Equalities Office’s (GEO) announcement of a review of the Gender Recognition Act, calling for an overhaul of the legislation and the enshrining of new trans rights.

Responding to the announcement, Challenor said:

“The Green Party has long maintained the Gender Recognition Act discriminates against some trans people and a review is well overdue. This is a welcome move from the GEO when LGBTIQA+ rights are under unprecedented threat around the world, but we need to make sure the review brings to light the significant flaws in the act and leads to real change.

“We need an overhaul of trans rights in the act in order for it to be fit for purpose. In particular, trans youth and non-binary people need to be able to obtain legal gender recognition. It’s also crucial we remove the medicalisation of the process.”

The current Gender Recognition Act, passed in 2004, requires a person to be diagnosed with gender dysphoria in order to change their gender in the eyes of the law.

Existing Green Party policy calls for a number of changes to the legal framework for trans people and gender recognition, including supporting legal recognition of non-binary people and trans youth, the ability for intersex people to alter their birth certificates and the abolition of the spousal veto for married trans people on legal recognition of their gender.

The Greens also support a widespread campaign against transphobia, including through public education programs in schools.

Prominent Green Party figures and politicians have this weekend been participating in and sending solidarity to Trans Pride celebrations in Brighton & Hove. Trans Pride is celebrating it’s fifth birthday this year, and organisers have estimated more than 2,500 people took part in the flagship march.

Green Party Co-Leader Caroline Lucas tweeted her support to the event, following a solidarity message from Green MEP Keith Taylor:

Other Green Party figures were present at yesterday’s events, including Convenor of the Green Group on Brighton & Hove City Council, Phelim Mac Cafferty and the Green Party’s LGBTIQA+ spokesperson Aimee Challenor (both pictured above).

Trans Pride is a charity based in Brighton & Hove run by volunteers, which organisers a series of events in pursuit of trans liberation, as well as the annual Trans Pride protest march. Protesters braved braving the rain, and throughout the rest of the day were addressed by speakers, poets and musicians.

Swindon Young Greens and Swindon Green Party took part in a march in support of refugees yesterday. The march, organised by People’s Assembly activist Kate Linnegar, was called to highlight the positive contributions made by refugees and asylum seekers to the city of Swindon.

Speaking to the Swindon Advertiser, Bradley Williams of the Swindon Young Greens said: “I think it [the plight of refugees] should matter to anyone with a heart. I would like to think that if, God forbid, anything should happen in this country, I would make it out to a safe country with my family.”

The march took place in an increasingly toxic environment for refugees and migrants in the UK. Media outlets such as the Daily Express and Daily Mail have been whipping up negative and sensationalist rhetoric around migration for over a decade, and the rise of hard right politics including through UKIP and the Brexit vote have combined to harden public opinion on the issue.

Dozens of people attended the march, in spite of heavy rain, which built on last year’s demonstration attended by over 100 people.

Green Party Member of the House of Lords Jenny Jones has called for a boycott of Boots Pharmacy as the store’s fiasco over the Morning After Pill continues. Boots has come under heavy criticism for responding to calls to cut the cost of the pill to be in line with other high street pharmacies, by claiming that to do so would be “incentivising inappropriate use”.

Green Party Deputy Leader Amelia Womack has called for a ban on sexist adverts, claiming they ‘harm all genders’. The calls were made in a piece for the Huffington Post, in response to a plan to tackle sexism in advertising released by the Advertising Standards Authority earlier this week.

Womack’s calls follow a widespread public backlash against sexist gender representation in adverts, including Protein World’s infamous ‘Are you beach body ready?’ billboards, which polling suggests over half of UK women deemed to be offensive.

Research released by Green Party Members of the European Parliament suggests that the UK’s air pollution crisis is set to cut more than 50,000 people’s lives short. The research has been published in a report commissioned by Keith Taylor, MEP for the South East – “Polluted Cities”. Continue reading →

The Young Greens of England and Wales have joined the international movement to protect bees from dangerous pesticides. Launched at the Global Greens Conference earlier this year, the campaign is calling for a ban on neonicotinoids pesticides, for local councils to create bee-friendly areas and for members to take personal action by planting bee friendly plants.

The Young Greens have now stepped up their efforts, opening applications for Young Greens groups to apply for £500 of shared grant funding, for the ‘Save the Bees’ campaign. Continue reading →